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For teaching purposes, this is the commentary-only version of the HBR case study. The case-only version is Reprint R0812X. The complete case study and commentary is Reprint R0812A.

Henrietta Mercer, the senior vice president for human resources at LaSalle Chemical, is facing a challenge unprecedented in her career: Steve Ambler, recently appointed the company's group sales director, has decided to change his gender identity. Before Henrietta can finish crafting a corporate response, someone slips a copy of her confidential memo to the executive committee to one of Steve's colleagues, whose outraged reaction suggests the difficulties that may lie ahead. How can she help him transition in a workplace where not everyone is on board with the plan? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0811A and R0811Z. Linda E. Taylor, the director of work life, equity, and inclusion at Raytheon Missile Systems, advises Henrietta to offer lots of gender identity training. When Raytheon employees question the morality of condoning transgender choices, she replies that the company doesn't pass judgment on its employees' private lives and that working for Raytheon means adhering to its policy of inclusion. Ronald K. Andrews, a vice president and head of human resources at Prudential, says it is crucial to work very closely with the person transitioning and points out that the individual's courage may be what most strikes colleagues. Prudential held a meeting to educate account executives and provide them with talking points before they spoke directly to key clients - not one of whom was lost. Stasha Goliaszewski, a scientist and engineer at Boeing, started her gender transition after four years with the company. HR support helped with other employees, and her professional expertise helped when she called on customers. She advises large companies to prepare their gender-identity policies and not be caught off guard, as Henrietta was. Statistics show that, sooner or later, they are bound to encounter the issue.

learning objective:

In this fictional case study, a human resources executive must decide how to handle tensions that arise when an employee announces his intent to undergo a gender change. The reader will consider issues such as how best to inform customers and colleagues of a person's gender transition plan; how to establish inclusive policies; and whether to offer gender-transition awareness training.

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This HBR Case Study includes both the case and the commentary. For teaching purposes, this reprint is also available in two other versions: case study-only, reprint R0812X, and commentary-only, R0812Z.

Henrietta Mercer, the senior vice president for human resources at LaSalle Chemical, is facing a challenge unprecedented in her career: Steve Ambler, recently appointed the company's group sales director, has decided to change his gender identity. Before Henrietta can finish crafting a corporate response, someone slips a copy of her confidential memo to the executive committee to one of Steve's colleagues, whose outraged reaction suggests the difficulties that may lie ahead. How can she help him transition in a workplace where not everyone is on board with the plan? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0811A and R0811Z. Linda E. Taylor, the director of work life, equity, and inclusion at Raytheon Missile Systems, advises Henrietta to offer lots of gender identity training. When Raytheon employees question the morality of condoning transgender choices, she replies that the company doesn't pass judgment on its employees' private lives and that working for Raytheon means adhering to its policy of inclusion. Ronald K. Andrews, a vice president and head of human resources at Prudential, says it is crucial to work very closely with the person transitioning and points out that the individual's courage may be what most strikes colleagues. Prudential held a meeting to educate account executives and provide them with talking points before they spoke directly to key clients - not one of whom was lost. Stasha Goliaszewski, a scientist and engineer at Boeing, started her gender transition after four years with the company. HR support helped with other employees, and her professional expertise helped when she called on customers. She advises large companies to prepare their gender-identity policies and not be caught off guard, as Henrietta was. Statistics show that, sooner or later, they are bound to encounter the issue.

learning objective:

In this fictional case study, a human resources executive must decide how to handle tensions that arise when an employee announces his intent to undergo a gender change. The reader will consider issues such as how best to inform customers and colleagues of a person's gender transition plan; how to establish inclusive policies; and whether to offer gender-transition awareness training.

Discipline:

Source:

Product number:

Length:

Also Available in:

description

For teaching purposes, this is the case-only version of the HBR case study. The commentary-only version is reprint R0812Z. The complete case study and commentary is reprint R0812A.

Henrietta Mercer, the senior vice president for human resources at LaSalle Chemical, is facing a challenge unprecedented in her career: Steve Ambler, recently appointed the company's group sales director, has decided to change his gender identity. Before Henrietta can finish crafting a corporate response, someone slips a copy of her confidential memo to the executive committee to one of Steve's colleagues, whose outraged reaction suggests the difficulties that may lie ahead. How can she help him transition in a workplace where not everyone is on board with the plan? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0811A and R0811Z. Linda E. Taylor, the director of work life, equity, and inclusion at Raytheon Missile Systems, advises Henrietta to offer lots of gender identity training. When Raytheon employees question the morality of condoning transgender choices, she replies that the company doesn't pass judgment on its employees' private lives and that working for Raytheon means adhering to its policy of inclusion. Ronald K. Andrews, a vice president and head of human resources at Prudential, says it is crucial to work very closely with the person transitioning and points out that the individual's courage may be what most strikes colleagues. Prudential held a meeting to educate account executives and provide them with talking points before they spoke directly to key clients - not one of whom was lost. Stasha Goliaszewski, a scientist and engineer at Boeing, started her gender transition after four years with the company. HR support helped with other employees, and her professional expertise helped when she called on customers. She advises large companies to prepare their gender-identity policies and not be caught off guard, as Henrietta was. Statistics show that, sooner or later, they are bound to encounter the issue.

learning objective:

In this fictional case study, a human resources executive must decide how to handle tensions that arise when an employee announces his intent to undergo a gender change. The reader will consider issues such as how best to inform customers and colleagues of a person's gender transition plan; how to establish inclusive policies; and whether to offer gender-transition awareness training.

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Companies seeking to wring ever more competitive advantage from supply chain partnerships often overlook the role creativity, trustworthiness, and flexibility play in the process. But these difficult-to-quantify "soft" characteristics make the difference between extraordinary and substandard performance from your manufacturing facilities, suppliers, and partners. This article offers questions to ask and a template for assigning values to these elusive qualities so that you can use them to enhance your supply chain relationships.

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You can't do it alone. But it takes skill to find the right people to help you get the results you are aiming for. Management experts Eileen Shapiro and Howard Stevenson advise that you call on your ability to think empathetically--envisioning how others see the world--so you can assess potential allies and build areas of shared purpose.

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It's not possible to anticipate everything that can put a project's plan or schedule at risk. But what sets skilled managers apart is the ability to prepare for the types of execution risk that are foreseeable. Find out about the four main types of risk--financial resource, human resource, supply, and quantity--and how you can address each form through a three-step methodology.

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When Hitachi High-Technologies expanded its sourcing program internationally, it discovered that the devil can indeed be in the details. Some issues that it has encountered, such as increased use of costly expedited freight services, can be fairly easily identified and analyzed. Other challenges are more difficult to pinpoint and resolve--for instance, cultural differences among countries. Overcoming such glitches can take much effort and some creativity, but as Hitachi experience shows, managers who enter the international fray with a heightened awareness of the potential pitfalls have a decided advantage.

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Companies lose critical knowledge all the time. And, in many cases, it's knowledge they never really understood that they had. Experienced workers get promoted into new positions, move on to new companies, or retire. They may pass on the technical expertise required to perform their functions, but rarely do they have the opportunity to impart the full meaning of their experience--that greater wherewithal they have culled from years on a job. Companies, therefore, need to cultivate, acquire, and transfer a deeper organizational expertise--or what authors Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap call "deep smarts." Few companies manage this asset very well, however, which is why the impending retirement of so many baby boomers strikes fear into the hearts of human resources directors. But even if the coming retirement wave of baby boomers weren't about to crest, the situation would still be urgent. For 21st century business, the development of deep smarts throughout an organization is a critical element in sustaining competitive advantage. For these efforts to succeed, companies must not only improve their ability to transfer deep smarts within the organization but to bring it in from the outside as well.

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Most supply chains for network computing servers encompass three steps, or "touches," between the time a product is manufactured and the time it arrives at a customer's doorstep. But as far as Eugene McCabe and his team at Sun Microsystems are concerned, that's two too many. Today Sun is midstream in an ambitious plan to reduce the number of its supply chain touches to one. Learn about how Sun is remaking its business by aggressively pushing more and more of its most closely held operations further up the supply chain.

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As companies have shifted from integrated, vertical business models to horizontal models that rely on outside vendors and suppliers, making sure that their supply chain is strategically aligned has become a preeminent concern for executives. Trying to pinpoint the source of a performance breakdown or making decisions about the trade-offs between, say, inventory levels and customer service is incredibly hard when it's outside organizations that are performing critical activities that the company itself used to handle. How do you ensure not only that everyone--including internal departments and outside partners--has the same priorities but, more fundamentally, that they're speaking the same language? The answer lies in large part in the strategic use of performance metrics. But the hallmark of a truly effective measurement system is that it speaks to the needs of both senior corporate executives and managers up and down the supply chain. The key, in other words, is to understand which aspects of supply chain performance are most important to the C-suite and to translate this into more detailed, tactical measures that lower level managers can use to fine-tune their interventions.

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